Britain will join Taiwan, the US and Australia in backing an EU trade case against China at the WTO over Beijing’s alleged trade curbs on Lithuania, a move that British Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan said would oppose “coercive trading practices.”
The EU last month launched a challenge at the trade body based in Geneva, Switzerland, accusing China of discriminatory trade practices against Lithuania that it says threaten the integrity of the EU’s single market.
“We will request to join the EU’s WTO consultation into these measures as a third party to ensure we combat economic coercion in trade together,” Trevelyan wrote on Twitter.
Photo: Bloomberg
Taiwan, the US and Australia have signaled that they intend to join the consultations.
US Trade Representative spokesman Adam Hodge said that US President Joe Biden’s administration is “deeply concerned” by China’s discriminatory trade practices against Lithuanian goods and EU goods with Lithuanian content.
“We will continue working with Lithuania, the EU, and like-minded allies and partners to push back on the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] coercive economic and diplomatic behavior,” Hodge said in a Jan. 27 statement. “The United States will request to join these WTO consultations in solidarity with Lithuania and the European Union.”
Vilnius is under pressure from China to reverse a decision last year to allow Taiwan to open a representative office in the capital under its own name.
China has downgraded diplomatic ties with the Baltic nation and pressured multinationals to sever ties with it.
The challenge at the WTO allows 60 days for the parties to confer to reach a settlement. If none is reached, the EU may choose to launch a formal dispute that would set up a WTO panel to study its claims against China.
A Geneva-based trade official said that the participation of other Western countries, assuming they are not blocked by Beijing, would be “helpful” to the EU’s case.
“If you have other members arguing on your behalf and putting forward arguments, I think the panel would look at that,” he said.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for
Singapore yesterday swore in Lawrence Wong (黃循財) as the city-state’s new prime minister in a ceremony broadcast live on television after Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) stepped down following two decades in office. Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, was inaugurated at the Istana government office shortly after 8pm to become the second person outside the Lee family to lead the nation. “I ... do solemnly swear that I will at all times faithfully discharge my duties as prime minister according to law, and to the best of my knowledge and ability, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will. So help me God,” the